[Use of mechanical staplers in colorectal resections. Personal experience]

Staplers have introduced and continue to introduce benefits above all in terms of anastomotic procedures used in digestive tract surgery. A prime sector od application is rectal cancer in that mechanical anastomosis allows low rectal resections to be performed, thus reducing the number of abdominoperineal amputations, without negatively affecting the oncological radicality of exeresis. The authors review the cases operated by the 1st Chair of Surgical Pathology at "La Sapienza" Rome University during the period 1984-1993 when rectal anastomoses were systematically performed using mechanical staplers. On the basis of their personal experience and in line with the data reported in the literature, although there may be anastomotic complications, such ad dehiscence ad stenosis, it is possible to affirm that the use of staplers has led to benefits which, if evaluated as a whole, fully justify their cost which is still quite considerable.